54 After the metabotropic glutamate 2/3 receptor agonist LY544344/LY354740 had shown acute

anxiolytic-like action in preclinical studies, a pilot study on panic anxiety induced by CCK-4 was performed in healthy humans.55 Twelve male Breast cancer volunteers were treated with 80 mg bid LY544344 orally for 1 week in a fda approved randomized placebo-controlled double-blind crossover design. While no significant treatment effect for the number of CCK-4-induced panic symptoms and subjective anxiety ratings emerged in the entire sample, the ten subjects who showed an endocrine response to the test substance displayed Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical a significant reduction on these two measures. Unfortunately, due to emerging problems in long-term preclinical safety, no subsequent clinical Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical studies were performed with this compound. The finding of a significant anti-panic effect of atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) in patients with panic disorder has already

been mentioned above.31 In this double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover study also nine healthy control subjects matched for sex and age were included and they were given an intravenous infusion of 150 μg of ANP followed by CCK-4 panic induction. However, no significant treatment effect of ANP on API ratings was observed in healthy man. The β-blocker propranolol (0.2 mg/kg given intravenously over 20 minutes) has been observed to significantly Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical decrease the CCK-4 response (sum intensity and number of panic symptoms) in a study in 30 healthy male volunteers who were randomly assigned to propranolol or placebo.56 In panic patients no study with a β-blocker has been reported using the CCK-4 Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical model and in a 5-week double-blind placebo-controlled study, no efficacy of propranolol on spontaneous attacks was detected.57 Interestingly, using the CCK-B receptor agonist pentagastrin for panic provocation in a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study with identical dose and application of propranolol as above in a predominantly female group of 16 healthy adult subjects, no significant effect Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical on total symptom intensity as per the API was observed.58 Regarding GABA (γ-aminobutyric)-ergic drugs other than benzodiazepines both the GABA reuptake inhibitor tiagabine and the GABA transaminase

inhibitor vigabatrin have been studied in this experimental panic paradigm. Fifteen healthy volunteers received 15 mg tiagabine daily for 1 week in an open study. Both API-and PSS-scores showed a significant Carfilzomib reduction to a CCK4 stimulus that was performed before and after treatment.59 In a following double-blind placebo-controlled pilot study with 4 weeks of tiagabine in 19 patients with panic disorder a subset of seven patients (three treated with tiagabine, four treated with placebo) was challenged with 25 μg of CCK-4 at baseline and after 14 and 28 days.60 Patients of the tiagabine vs the placebo group showed considerably decreased sensitivity to CCK-4 (as per API ratings). However, clinical benefits of tiagabine on the Panic and Agoraphobia Scale were not detected.